TT almost caught on fire

[jbres]

To make the long story short, my 2008 Forest River Wildwood TBSS that I really like, almost caught on fire this past summer. We were using it at a local park, and my wife and sister in law kept saying it was smelling like a electrical fire. Then it started, and kept blowing fuses through the day until later on where we lost all power until we left for the weekend.

I couldn't find any problems myself with it, and I looked high and low. My wife's' family electrician business offered for me to bring it into there shop on Monday, and they would look it over. They looked at it for awhile and still couldn't figure out why it wasn't getting power.

Then they found it... They traced the 30 amp plug (from where I plug into shore power at campsites) into the back bunkbeds where it goes into a junction box. Inside that junction box, wires had came apart and were smoldering each other and that's why we were smelling a electrical fire.
My biggest issue is why this was all caused. They said it was entirely caused by the little plastic bracket that broke, which is supposed to keep you from directly pulling on the wires in the junction box. Instead, each time we were pulling our power cord out to plug into a campsite, we were inadvertently pulling on the wires in that junction box.

The reason I write this is I don't want it to happen to someone else. This literally could have killed us if it would have caught fire while we were sleeping or something. If I had children and they were sleeping on the bunkbeds, it literally would have caught them on fire first being directly inches below the bottom bunk. So what steps should I take if any? Contact Forest River and maybe this could result in a recall??
Thanks!

[CavemanCharlie]

Bull Rider wrote:
I have marked the power cord with red electrical tape four feet from the end of the cord. So when you see the red band, STOP PULLING.... 🙂 My bride sometimes thinks that we have 200' feet of electrical cord.

Me too, except I used duct tape

[wa8yxm]

ScottG wrote:
It doesn't sound like a defect to me. It had a clamp securing the cord but the cord was pulled so hard that it loosened or broke the clamp? I've had the same design on mine all these years and it has worked fine. But I would never pull on it hard enough to damage the clamp. And if I accidentally applied that much force to it then I would inspect it and repair as needed.
Correct me please if I misunderstood what happened.

If the clamp that held the cord was so low-quality that tuggign on the cord pulling it out to plug in could break it then one of 3 conditions exist:

1: Defective design: Should have specified a stronger bracket
2: Defective construction: Failed to use specified stronger bracket
3: RV owned by HULK HOGAN, or someone else who is able to pull a whole lot harder than I can. And I can pull hard.

[DutchmenSport]

I'm surprised it did not caused shore power to blow it's fuse or breaker! Glad you finally figured it out!

[Pauljdav]

ScottG wrote:
I would not over-engineer this. If the RV is driven away with the cord attached then you want it to break free rather than pull the electrical box through the side of the rig.

Ive driven away before while still plugged in. It simply unplugged itself and I noticed when I stopped to pick up my leveling blocks.

[Lynnmor]

I don't want a removable cord attached right there in a foam/plywood wall. Mine had wires loose from new and could have caused a fire. Hard wire it and provide an industrial strength strain relief.

[Bull_Rider]

I have marked the power cord with red electrical tape four feet from the end of the cord. So when you see the red band, STOP PULLING.... 🙂 My bride sometimes thinks that we have 200' feet of electrical cord.

[colliehauler]

I might change the one on the Wildwood to a removable cable, looks like a good way to prevent theft.

[Tachdriver]

Had a similar problem back in 2012. I have a 2009 Starcraft 241RKS. After pulling into a campground and plugging into the power (30A), I heard a crackling, sizzling sound then no power. After T/S I found the metal junction boxes behind the cabinets that smelled, opened it up and found that the neutral wire wires worked its way to off and shorted to the box. The ground wires were wrapped inside so they were shorted directly to ground.

I ended up later modifying the system to the removable cable (Marinco). I replaced the home wiring with the same gauge all the way to the plug, installed the plug and replaced the end of the shore power cable with the female side of the plug.

Now I feel safer with no broken connections to my main power line!

[Old-Biscuit]

Changing a fixed cord to a removable cord........LINK

[12rvjoe]

westend wrote:
One solution: Replace the cheap, original box with a steel all weather box with very positive box entry clamps.
Another solution: Connect wiring from original box to a new power entry inlet, get a cordset that matches your new entry configuration. This will allow any strain to be taken by the entry inlet (the weight of the cord) and you can detach your cord and stow easily when not in use instead of having to coil and pack it away.

I would much rather have a removable cord is this something that is possible to do ....? I started to look into this last fall and got sidetracked .... :R

[ScottG]

I would not over-engineer this. If the RV is driven away with the cord attached then you want it to break free rather than pull the electrical box through the side of the rig.

[westend]

One solution: Replace the cheap, original box with a steel all weather box with very positive box entry clamps.
Another solution: Connect wiring from original box to a new power entry inlet, get a cordset that matches your new entry configuration. This will allow any strain to be taken by the entry inlet (the weight of the cord) and you can detach your cord and stow easily when not in use instead of having to coil and pack it away.

[jbres]

I bought the trailer used, so I cant speak for the previous owner, but I never pulled in excess on the power cord when stretching it out. Was more shocked all that was used to prevent this from happening was a cheap plastic clamp. Replaced with a metal one that wont break from now on.

[RoyB]

Leaving it hooked up to shore power and driving away might cause a similar problem...

Roy Ken